


One Before, Two After

by homebody



Series: Soulmates [1]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, I'm Sorry, color soulmate au, lots of colors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-24
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-08-10 21:14:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7861378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/homebody/pseuds/homebody
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>au where you can't see color until you meet your soulmate<br/>or the story where Hope meets Kelley and everything is beautiful</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Before, Two After

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This is my first work on here so I hope it impresses. This is a plot I've had in my mind for quite a while so I'm glad I've finally posted it.

Hope always thought there would be two stages to her life. The black and white that was her childhood and her teenage years, everything in simple shades of gray. Slate. Silver. Steel. And then there would be the next stage, the beautiful stage of life. Color. Light. Greens and purples and blues and neons, the kind of colors described in books. The sun. The sky. The stars.

She’s not looking for it. She’s never looking for it actively. There’s a lot of things to think about besides finding someone. First, there was school. A 4.0 GPA and a million different extracurriculars all adding up to a piece of paper presented to her. Not many people found their soulmates during their school years. And the ones that did, those were the popular people who always held hands down the hallway while everyone else watched with wistful eyes. Hope’s best friend Carli found her husband when she was sixteen. They went away to college together and according to the most recent Facebook post, they’re seeing the sights in Iceland.

Hope’s never looking, but it’s kind of hard not to know when she finds it.

She walks into the bar that’s a ten minutes walk away from her apartment. It’s dimly lit, made even dimmer by everything being in shades of fog and smoke. There’s a certain lifelessness to it all, a still frame with mechanical parts. As Hope marches towards the counter with her typical drink order already spilling from her lips, a woman at the bar turns around to look at the newcomer.

Before she locks eyes with Kelley O’Hara, the bar is a chunk of blackness and everything else is slate gray. She’s just Hope, floating through life in a sea of black and white. There’s a sudden flash behind her eyes,  _ in  _ her eyes, and her ears ring. She snaps her eyes shut and opens them again, wide and shocked.

Everything else happens after.

The girl at the bar looks equally surprised, but she’s smiling and her hand is over her heart. Hope does the same; the beating is erratic and quick. That doesn’t surprise her since she feels like she’s a hot second away from fainting. Her feet carry her unconsciously towards the reason for her world to be in color. She hasn’t even thought about looking around the room yet to see the colors described only in myth; Hope is already obsessed with the way Kelley’s smile looks and how her hair falls over one shoulder.

“You have nice eyes.” Kelley says when Hope’s in range. It’s weird to think about -- this is the biggest moment of Hope and Kelley’s lives and all the people around them just go on with their days without ever noticing. Hope doesn’t care. She feels fucking magical.

“You’re gorgeous.” Hope says breathlessly, jumping onto the empty stool at the bar. 

They stare at each other until they remember that  _ hello they’re soulmates now _ . Hope reaches her hand forward politely. “Hope Solo.”

“Kelley O’Hara.”

***

Kelley spends the night at Hope’s apartment. And Hope can’t contain her satisfaction when Kelley sees the giant kitchen with the huge window spanning almost the whole wall, the electric blue couches that Carli bought for Hope because “they match your eyes, Hope. When you can see them, you’ll love them.”

Hope extends her hand, motioning to the huge room, the high ceiling and the hardwood floor with a few fancy rugs thrown around. It occurs to her that everything she’s done has led up to this. The hard work and long hours. The constant renovation projects to turn this place into a home. It’s all cumulated into Kelley walking inside and saying, “Wow, Hope. This place is… perfect.”

“Thanks.”

Hope breaks out a bottle of wine from the rack above her fridge and some snacks from the pantry. They don’t kiss. They don’t profess their undying love for each other. They don’t break out the wedding magazines and plan their special day. Instead, Kelley puts her feet up on Hope’s legs and takes a glass of wine. 

From the second they get home until Hope has to leave in the morning for work, they talk.

“It’s good thing we found each other when we did,” Kelley says, laying back when Hope tells her that it’s alright for her to spend the day while Hope works. “Because the lease on my apartment ends in three days.”

Hope laughs. “You certainly don’t waste time, do you?”

Kelley smiles -- in the span of twelve or so hours, that smile has become one of Hope’s favorite things. Along with Kelley’s jawline, her laugh, the way she can make anything sound interesting, and how genuine the look in her eyes is whenever she talks about her passions. Maybe it’d be easier to say that Kelley in and of herself is one of Hope’s favorite things.

“Hope, we’re due to spend the rest of our lives together.” Kelley says simply. “Why not start now?”

***

Kelley doesn’t bring much to the apartment. She has some paintings and a whole collection of little squirrel figurines. The paintings are reframed and scattered about the apartment’s white walls. The squirrels end up littered about the shelves that are everywhere in the house. It’s only been three days, but there are at least six pictures of Hope and Kelley together, all taken on the same day, just in different parts of the city.

“My parents met each other when they were ten. Can you imagine? Being able to see all of this as a child?” Kelley plucks a flower from the vase by the sink. It’s pink with purple around the edges of each petal. Kelley delicately curls her fingers around it. “Everything is just so beautiful, Hope. When did your parents meet?”

“My parents…” Hope shrugs. “They weren’t in love. They’d heard the stories, about people who didn’t catch it right away but who had color slowly seep into their lives. They thought that would happen. It never did, though.”

“Wow. Are you close with your parents still?” Kelley drags her finger across the petal of the flower. It’s soft like it’s always been -- she always used to be the weird kid that pet the flowers in her mother's garden -- but the color being so obvious and so vibrant adds a certain dimension to it all. And Kelley knows that it’s all thanks to Hope.

“My dad’s passed since.”

“And your mom?”

“She’s… gone.” Hope says. It’s cryptic, but Kelley doesn’t pry. Instead, she scoots herself across the counter until she’s next to Hope and throws her arms around the taller woman. Hope leans into it; she’s muscular under her t-shirt but there’s a softness to her when she leans her face into Kelley’s shoulder and sighs happily.

“We have each other.” Kelley tells her. “And we’re gonna have each other til the end now, right?”

“Of course.” Hope promises, pulling back from the hug. It seems as good a time as any, so Hope leans in and kisses the freckle-faced girl sitting on her counter. They’re both smiling wide and the kiss is kind of awkward, but they’ve only known each other for a week so of course it’s going to be awkward. Kelley puts her hand against Hope’s chest; the pink flower is crushed between the cold palm of Kelley’s hand and the warm skin above Hope’s thumping heart.

Colors explode behind both girls’ eyes.

Kelley wonders why people in love don’t kiss all the time because it’s magical. It’s awe. It’s soft lips and Hope’s calloused hands. It’s noses bumping and no distance. It’s Hope’s forehead pressed against Kelley’s and their eyes locked. Kelley kisses her one more time and slides off the counter.

“Cool, right?” Kelley says, fixing her hair.

“Crazy.” Hope answers, turning around and bracing her back against the counter. “This is all crazy, you know. It’s a whirlwind.”

Kelley shrugs, a small smile playing at her lips. “That’s what love is, I guess.”

***

If Hope was aware that she loved Kelley on Day 1, it takes a month for Hope to become  _ hyperaware.  _ They fall into a rhythm with a simplicity and ease, sleeping in the same bed in sheets Kelley picked out -- they match Hope’s eyes, she thinks -- and they’ve mastered the art of brushing their teeth at the same time. Hope’s the better cook out of the two of them and Kelley makes up for it with her self-proclaimed ‘superhero ability’ to wash dishes. 

It’s good.

It’s great, actually.

Kelley works at a library and wears big, black glasses and a pastel blouse every day. She drives a gray sedan that sits in the garage next to Hope's Jeep. Hope works at an office making a good salary and recently, she’s developed an affinity for blazers. Maybe not the blazer itself, but the way that Kelley slips it over her shoulders every morning. And when she does, she says, “You look smashing” and Hope feels like those three words could end wars.

There’s something exciting about everyday life, something that Hope’s never had in the past. Even at work, she feels giddy because she gets to spend her breaks with Kelley at a cafe down the street and she gets to go home to Kelley every night.

They’re sitting in their usual spot. Even though they have two perfectly good couches and a nice TV, Kelley perches herself on the counter with a new vase of pretty flowers. These are yellow, since they don’t have many yellow things in the apartment and Kelley doesn’t want there to be an ‘imbalance to the ambiance’ or something ridiculous like that. Hope’s sitting on a stool pulled up the marble island, putting together a puzzle she bought with the intention of her and Kelley doing together.

Kelley’s content to just watch, and Hope’s content with being watched.

“We’re like a puzzle.” Kelley says suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence. 

Hope raises an eyebrow. “How long have you been sitting on that one?”

“A while.” Kelley admits with a shrug. “I’ve just been thinking about it, I don’t know. You had your life pieced together prior to meeting me. You had a skeleton of it at least, the corners and the borders.”

“Then you came along and all the middle pieces showed up.”

“And now,” Kelley motions to the almost completed puzzle. It’s a field of wildflowers with in-bloom cherry blossoms on the sides and fireworks going off in the midnight blue sky. “Now you can see the picture.”

Hope smiles. “ _ And  _ it’s in color.”

“Everything is.” Kelley breathes. “Everything’s in color and I think I love you.”

It comes out fast and awkward and Hope almost doesn’t catch it. But she does. “I think I love you too, so it’s alright.”

***

Hope has the day off.

“It kind of sucks that I have to be around here,” Hope says, sitting on the arm of the couch while Kelley pulls her jacket over her shoulders. “While you’re at work.”

“I’ll be home at two,” Kelley assures her with a kiss. “And you can come see me during my lunch break, if you’re going to be so clingy.”

She leaves and shuts the door gently behind her. Hope watches out the window as Kelley gets into her car and drives down the street, then gets up to do some housework. The best thing she can do with her free time, Hope thinks, is to let Kelley come home to a crystal clean house. There’s dishes in the sink and the stove needs to be wiped down, among other things. 

There’s a new vase of flowers by the sink. Orange chrysanthemums surrounded by a whole bunch of forget-me-nots. Which, Hope has learned, is Kelley’s favorite flower. Suddenly, they’re Hope’s favorite too.

Even more suddenly, there’s a ringing in Hope’s ears. The plate she’s holding crashes to the floor and she presses the heels of her palms into her eyes. It’s burning and ringing and Hope feels like her head is going to explode. It pulses, a throbbing in her ears and a stinging in her eyes, for a solid few seconds until it fades away. Hope opens her eyes.

The forget-me-nots are steel gray.

The clouds outside are still white, but their backdrop is a dull silver instead of blue. 

Hope braces the counter, and everything else happens after.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone for reading! Feedback is greatly appreciated and if you all like this, I may have a few other ships in mind for this universe... much less angsty I (sort of) assure you.


End file.
